Tag: warming up

One of the workshops I attended at last year’s Big Double Reed Day was about getting the most out of the time you have available for practising. The first half of the session was dedicated to a warm-up routine that I’ve used ever since, because I’ve found that it really helps in getting me off to a good start. If I’ve warmed up properly, then the chances are that the rest of my practice session will be more successful than if I’d just dived straight in.

I’m afraid I can’t remember the name of the tutor who took the session…if I could, I would credit her properly here. She was marvellous.

Okay, so there are lots of different areas that need warming up: the oboe, the reed, and various bits of the oboist. I’ve used a mixture of words, photos and iMovie videos to explain each exercise. Before we begin, here’s a short apology for the amateur videos:

HOW TO WARM UP

1) Hands, Wrists and Fingers

i) Hold hands out at arm’s length and stretch fingers out as far as possible as below. Hold for five seconds, relax and repeat.

ii) Lock hands together at arm’s length, palms facing outwards as below. Hold for five seconds, relax and repeat.

(You can also do the same exercise with your arms stretched out behind your back, but palms should be facing inwards this way around.)

iii) Hold hands at arm’s length again, wrists bent inwards with one hand inside the other. Hold for five seconds, relax, swap hands around and repeat.

iv) Finger trills without playing them, as in the video below.

2) Shoulders

Roll your shoulders, first forward, then back. (This is a nice one!)

3) Back

Sitting on a chair, flop forward and then raise yourself from the small of your back to come upwards in a hunch (see below). You should feel the stretch across your shoulder blades.

When you’ve finished these stretches, give hands, fingers, wrists and shoulders a good shake to loosen everything up again. It’s a good idea to repeat these stretches at the end of your session, and perhaps even half-way through as well. Stretching both relieves tension and helps prevent injury. After all, musicians have to hold an instrument in the same position and sit very still for long periods at a time, and this concentrated effort can lead to muscular pain, repetitive strain injury or tendonitis.

4. Lips

The video shows three exercises designed to ready the embouchure muscles for action:

blow out pockets of air;

make a pffbbbbll sound (sorry, can’t explain this one in words!);

roll your lips over your teeth and back again several times.

5. Diaphragm

i) Put your hand on your diaphragm and blow out pockets of air in short, forceful bursts. You should be able to feel your diaphragm moving as you do this. Important: if you feel dizzy, STOP. You will be taking in quite a lot of oxygen and there is always the possibility that you might hyperventilate and pass out. Fainting only looks good if you are a film star.

ii) Playing a repeated note of your choice, use your diaphragm to separate the notes to create a wah-wah-wah sound. Don’t tongue the notes at all – again, this is forcing your diaphragm to do some work.

6. The Oboe

Fingering a low Bb, blow down your oboe to warm it up. This should help prevent blocked octave boxes (in theory!) and should help you pull a nice A out of the hat when asked for one. (It’s often assumed that the poor old oboist will be able to play a perfect A straight away, despite not having been given any time to warm up.)

7. The Reed

i) Roll the reed in and out between your lips while blowing, so the pitch changes from high to low and back again. Remember the muscles at the side of your mouth should do more work than those above and below.

This exercise is especially useful if you need to practise altering your embouchure very quickly. Generally speaking, you need a tighter embouchure and a bit more reed in your mouth to produce the highest notes, and a considerable embouchure adjustment is needed to play, for example, a top G followed by a bottom C# as required in Kalliwoda’s Morceau de Salon Op. 228, (bar 62, Nova Music Edition).

Try to keep the air flow constant – it’s not that easy!

ii) Repeat the exercise above but this time with your oboe, bending the note as far as you can each time. It’ll be a horrible racket, but it’s really good for warming up the reed and getting your breathing going.

8. The Tongue

i) Choose a note, then keeping the beat constant, play the same note as crotchets, quavers, triplets then semi-quavers (see diagram below). Don’t start too fast or you’ll fall over yourself once you get to the semiquavers! Try to keep it really smooth and don’t let the pitch waver. You could use a tuner to ensure that you keep the pitch level.

It’s also a good idea to begin your session by playing through a piece that features a lot of tongued notes – your tongue will be too tired later on, so do this first: Britten’s Phaeton from the Metamorphoses is a good one. Your ability to tongue at a rapid pace will quickly worsen if you don’t practise it regularly, but it will also improve quickly once you start working on it again.

ii) Play one octave of a scale, crescendo to top and diminuendo down. Listen to the tuning and keep it really, really smooth – no bumpy tonguing.

9. Final Exercise

Improvise for a few minutes around a scale, or even just on one note, experimenting with dynamics, tone, phrasing – that sort of thing.

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Another quick note about me

I'm not a music professional, only a very enthusiastic amateur. The purpose of this blog is quite simply to share my own experience of playing the oboe in the hope that other players will find something useful here, or may even wish to contribute something of their own. Guest bloggers welcome.

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